Flyables: Haptic Input Devices for Virtual Reality using Quadcopters

Virtual Reality (VR) has made its way into everyday life. While VR delivers an ever-increasing level of immersion, controls and their haptics are still limited. Current VR headsets come with dedicated controllers that are used to control every virtual interface element. However, the controller input mostly differs from the virtual interface. This reduces immersion. To provide a more realistic input, we present Flyables, a toolkit that provides matching haptics for virtual user interface elements using quadcopters. We took five common virtual UI elements and built their physical counterparts. We attached them to quadcopters to deliver on-demand haptic feedback. In a user study, we compared Flyables to controller-based VR input. While controllers still outperform Flyables in terms of precision and task completion time, we found that Flyables present a more natural and playful way to interact with VR environments. Based on the results from the study, we outline research challenges that could improve interaction with Flyables in the future.